


Awakening

by AGL03



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Discovering Powers, F/M, Inhuman Jemma, Once Upon a Dream, Season 2 AU, Tumblr Prompt, Woman on Fire Jemma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 17:43:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7473678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGL03/pseuds/AGL03
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a tumblr prompt.  Things go a little differently in Afterlife and Jemma is hit with a terrigen crystal.  Her powers taking their own time and motivation to manifest themselves for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awakening

**Author's Note:**

  * For [queensimmons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/queensimmons/gifts).



Fitz hadn’t left her side, not since she had been brought back from Afterlife on the Quinjet unconscious on a stretcher. It was easily been the worst moment of Fitz’s life sitting there in Coulson’s office with Hunter watching as the team went to Afterlife. Only able to watch as Jaiying revealed her true colors and attacked. 

Jemma had been targeted--that much was clear. Gordon appearing behind her and whisking her away from the protective barrier of agents, holding her in front of everyone like a trophy. Fitz screaming in the office as Coulson shouted into the comms. Hunter unable to do nothing more than hold his young friend as he watched the scene play out in horror. 

Jaiying had made a rousing speech about the evils of Shield and the dangers it posed to their people. Presenting her wounded arms and Jemma’s indexing program up high as an example. And then she had produced a crystal from within her sleeves and dropped it in front of Jemma with a cold look on her face. Skye had tried to push her way through the crowd but was too late to help her friend. Lincoln grabbing her to keep her from getting another dose of the mists. 

Fitz’s legs gave out at that point as he watched her disappearing into the cocoon her screams filling his ears and cutting him like a knife. “Do something!” He begged of Coulson. 

May and Skye moved in tandem as the dust settled. The Shield team spurring into action and retreating from the threat. The two women ran towards Jemma’s frozen form. While at the Playground time had frozen as Fitz watched and prayed, “Please Jemma, please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me.” 

He had collapsed in relief, sobbing into Hunter’s arms as the cocoon gave way and Jemma fell into May’s arms unconscious. Skye used her powers to keep the rest of the Inhumans at bay for the remaining Shield agents to get onto the Quinjets. 

“She’s okay, Mate,” Hunter said, his own voice shaking. 

Fitz had been waiting in the hanger when they arrived. Jemma was awake by the time they’d arrived and wrapped in a blanket. Skye had her arms wrapped around Jemma’s shoulder and guiding her down the ramp. 

He had run to her pulling her away from Skye unapologetically, wrapping her up in his arms crying into her shoulder and she into his chest. “I thought I’d lost you,” he cried. “And I can’t, I can’t live in a world without you in it.” Jemma’s only response had been to hold him tighter, refusing to let go as she was led to quarantine. The team knew better than to try to keep him out. 

He was still beside her forty eight later, his hand clutching to hers as they waited for the test results or even the first manifestation of her powers. 

“What do you think they will be?” Jemma had finally asked, her free hand playing with the hem of the blanket. 

“Something magnificent,” Fitz said easily brushing a stray hair away inhaling deeply and just savoring her scent. He couldn’t place it, something was different about it, not a bad different just like he was always surrounded by a meadow of flowers. The base was nearly empty in the late night save for Hunter and Bobbi in the medical wing. 

“Why haven’t they manifested yet?” She asked next. “Skye and Raina showed their powers immediately.” Fitz unable to contain his smile, some things never changed and Jemma Simmons didn’t like to under achieve at anything. 

“Perhaps you haven’t been around whatever you have your power over yet. What if you can talk to animals?” he said finally getting a small smile from her. “Maybe I should tell Coulson we need a monkey to test the hypothesis out on.” 

Fitz was delighted when Jemma giggled nudging him in the shoulder. “Anything to get your monkey then.”

“It’s a very valid hypothesis,” he defended. “From what we’ve seen of Inhumans their powers are incredibly varied, so it completely plausible that there is one out there that has been gifted with the powers to talk to adorable little monkeys.” 

Jemma snuggled into him and pulled his hand to her chest, “Thank you Fitz for everything. I don’t know what I would do without you.” 

He looked down at her fondly, “You’ll never have to find out,” he assured hearing the timer on his watch go off. “I’m going to get you something to eat,” he said getting up feeling her hand squeeze his briefly before letting go. “Any requests?” 

Jemma felt silly for asking but she knew exactly what she wanted and Fitz did make them best, “Pancakes?” she asked hopefully. Reveling in the smile he gave her, one she had thought she’d never see again in the depths of their estrangement. 

“Pancakes,” he agreed slipping out as Skye met him outside. Jemma knew that they had arranged it so she wouldn’t have to be alone. 

Skye took over Fitz’s chair, dropping a heavy bag onto Jemma’s bed. “Quarantine survival kit, Bobbi made one for me so I made one for you. When Bobbi is up to it we’ll make one for her.” 

Jemma smiled warmly and accepted the bag, “How are you feeling?” Skye asked. 

“My skin is crawling,” Jemma admitted rubbing her hands together. Finding herself bereft of Fitz’s comforting touch. “But other than that perfectly normal.”

“Lincoln did something with acupuncture and his powers to help with that for me…I don’t dare try it without some better direction. Regardless I don’t think Coulson or Fitz for that matter will allow anyone from Afterlife near you right now.” 

Jemma hated to admit it but she didn’t want any of them close to her either. After what they had done….what they had tried to do to her. “I should be allowed out tomorrow and then maybe we can finally find out what my powers are. “

“Still nothing?” Skye asked surprised. She had demonstrated her powers fresh out of her cocoon when she’d caused the earthquake that nearly brought the temple down. Lincoln said he nearly burned down Afterlife. “It’s possible you were manifesting and we just didn’t notice in the chaos of the attack. My mother had journals full of powers going back generations. I think Coulson has them in evidence now, but maybe you can go through them.” 

Jemma nodded absently, in all honestly her curiosity had faded considerably over the last few days in regards to other Inhumans, more curious about herself now. Anxious to study her own blood work and see how it had changed. 

They fell into easy conversation, Daisy filled her in on everything she had missed while in Quarantine and what had happened on the Illiad, before Fitz returned with a tray. It had three plates of pancakes on it, syrup, two cups of tea, and a single budding rose in a small vase. 

Jemma lit up as he set it down, gently touching the rose “Where on earth did you find a flower on this base?” she asked as Fitz distributed the plates. Plant life of any kind was few and far between on the mostly underground base.

He blushed slightly, “Agent Anderson was doing an experiment on them, and I may have nicked one of the buds while he wasn’t looking. Thought you could use a bit of color in here.” 

Skye stifled a giggle at the blush, suddenly feeling as if she was intruding on a moment. She smirked to herself and pulled out her silent phone, “Oh would you look at that, Coulson needs to see me in his office. Thanks for the pancakes Fitz!” With that she ran off before either one of them could say otherwise. 

“I didn’t hear her phone,” Fitz muttered before returning to the task of laying everything out. Taking the vase from Jemma and setting it on her bedside table so there would be room for the food. 

Jemma looked over everything he had done and suddenly found her eyes welling with tears and was unable to stop the small sob that escaped her lips. As it hit her forcefully in that moment she had almost lost all of this, lost him, and he would have never known how she really felt. Fitz was there in a second, pushing the tray away and pulling her into his arms and rubbing her back. “Hey,” he soothed. “What is all this about?” 

She pulled back the tears still streaming, cupping his face in her hands as she looked into his eyes. “I never told you,” she said and he opened his mouth to respond. A finger going to his lips and silencing him before he could say another word. “I could have died and I never told you….you’re more than that too Fitz. So much more that I truly can’t imagine my life without you in it.” 

His eyes were welling with tears now and his hands came up to hold hers. “I told you, you’ll never have to find out,” he whispered before leaning down. He watched her intently, making sure she wasn’t going to pull away. Instead her eyes closed and she closed the distance and their lips met in a tentative kiss. 

While the first brushes were unsure it only took a matter of moments before they gave into ten years of tension. The kiss deepening into a series of contended sighs and moans. Fitz pulling her into his lap to hold her closer. So lost in each other neither one noticed as the budding rose bloomed in full.

8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8

It had been almost a month since Jemma had been let out of quarantine to assume her normal duties around the base. Her powers still stubbornly refusing to manifest despite her and Fitz’s best efforts to coax them out. Coulson was cautious with both Jemma and Skye as the fallout from the Illiad was resolved. Eventually he had no choice but to send both Fitz and Simmons out again. Their first outing stemmed from word of an old Hydra safe house in the countryside of France. It home to a lab full of experiments that no one except trained hands should touch. 

Mack and May swept the expansive manor for sleeper agents and hidden traps. Fitz and Simmons carefully packed up the lab. It only took them a few minutes to realize something was off. Jemma was looking at the Data from the Dwarves; Sneezy focused a beaker of chemicals to see if it was safe to disturb. Reporting back it was merely water with food coloring. “Fitz, come look at this,” Jemma said with a frown turning to show him the results. He made his way across the room, passing the door of the lab when two leather clad arms shot through one hand covering Fitz’s mouth to muffle his cries for help the other, around his throat as he was pulled into the halls.

“Fitz!” Jemma screamed running after him and pushing the comm-link in her ear. “Mack! May! We’ve been attacked! Someone grabbed Fitz!”

She made it into the hall just in time to see Fitz’s struggling form hauled around the corner by a face Jemma had never wanted to see again, Grant Ward. His dark eyes met hers and he offered a smug smile before calling back to her. “Sorry, Simmons. I just need him for now.” 

“Simmons!” May called through the comm the sounds of shooting echoing in the background. “It was a trap, Mack and I are pinned down-“

Jemma didn’t hear the rest, taking off at a run wishing desperately her powers would finally manifest into something that would make Ward burst into flames with her mere look. “Fitz!” she called, not even hearing his muffled cries anymore. 

She took the stairs two at a time and saw the double doors that lead into the garden wide open. Assuming that was where Ward had gone. Making it to the end of the veranda to see Ward entering the slightly overgrown, neglected, and dying gardens. Running for a helicopter on the open field just beyond. Fitz now laying limp in his arms. 

Anger flared seeing him like that causing her fingers to tingle in response. Skye’s powers had first manifested when she was emotionally distraught so Jemma figured hers were doing the same. Embracing the feeling she threw her arms out and yelled with as much authority she could muster. “WARD!”

As she spoke she felt a wave of power flood through her body and beyond. As a result the overgrown plants around her grew and bloomed in an explosion of color. Though weaker by the time it got to him, the wave reached Ward causing him to freeze in place. The hedges around him sprung back to life and grew a few inches keeping him in place.

Slowly he turned, careful to keep the limp form of Fitz in front of him as a shield. He looked at Simmons. “Really? You too?” he asked clearly amused. 

She looked like some sort of goddess now framed by the flowers around her, chest heaving from the effort. Her fingers curling as she began to get a feel for the new surge of power running through her. The plants responding to her movements. “Really,” she responded her voice dripping with venom. “Now put him down.” 

Ward laughed, “Why on earth would I do that? When he can build me weapons and you can be my weapon. Because you would, you would do anything to make sure he doesn’t suffer….and we all know how much I can make him suffer.” 

Jemma advanced her eyes locked on Fitz. He looked so small and pale in Wards arms, all the while willing some vines of Ivy to run behind the hedges. “I won’t allow you to hurt him, not ever again. This is your last warning. Take your filthy hands off of him.”

Ward merely started walking backwards towards the chopper again. “You want to make sure he stays safe and in one piece I suggest you start following my orders, Simmons.” 

The rustle of the bushes on either side of him was the only warning before a pair of vines shot out from either side of him. Coiling up Wards arms like snakes and wrenching them apart. Jemma murmured an apology to Fitz when he was dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The vines pulling Ward up a foot off the ground as they pulled tight. 

He let out a grunt of pain and pulled fruitlessly at the bindings. If anything it made them hold on tighter as Jemma approached. A trail of flowers now blossoming as she walked across the grass. Another vine started coiling up his arms, this one from a nearby rose bush and covered with thorns and wrapping around Wards throat. 

Another grunt but he refused to make any more sound as the thorns cut into the tender flesh of his throat and began to squeeze. Instead he laughed again. “Going to try to kill me again?” He taunted. “If I remember right last time you tried to do that you failed miserably even getting poor Bakshi instead.” 

Jemma’s response was to pull the vines tighter Wards laughs rapidly devolving into gasps for air. “Didn’t know you had it in you,” he panted “going to do to me what I did to him then”   
“Jem,” a weak voice suddenly spoke causing her to start and the vines to loosen a bit around the throat. 

“Fitz,” she said dropping to his side, another explosion of flowers blossoming around them as she cradled him close. 

He smiled back picking one of the blossoms and tucking it into her hair, “I told you it would be something magnificent,” He said gently. “You don’t need to taint something so beautiful with the likes of Ward’s blood.”

The thorns dug in again as she looked up at Ward, her hand brushing along the bruises forming on Fitz’s throat. “He was going to take you from me again,” she said simply. “I have to protect you and everyone else from him. Look at what he did to Bobbi because I couldn’t finish the Job in the arctic. And what he was going to do to you to get you to cooperate-”

Fitz sat up and cupped her cheek, seeing Mack and May running down from the house and motioning for them to keep their distance for now. “It’s because you are better than him Jem, don’t let him take this from you too. I’m not saying to let him go but let’s have the proper authorities decide how he could be punished.” 

She looked at him with shining eyes, tears welling in them and for the first time Fitz’ noticed they had shifted from caramel brown to emerald green. He leaned forward and kissed her gently, the vine around Ward’s throat dropping limply to the ground and the Ivy slackened their hold enough that his feet were back on the ground, eliciting a groan of relief from the prisoner. “That’s my girl,” Fitz whispered as he pulled away resting his forehead against hers. 

The sound of two Icer shots making them jump, both catching Ward in the chest as he fell limp. Mack and May looked utterly unapologetic about it. “Have to say, it fits,” May said as they approached. Jemma blushed and released Ward’s limp body to the ground. Suddenly feeling exhausted herself, she collapsed into Fitz’s arms. 

Fitz caught her easily and held her close. Mack knelt next to him, “You okay Turbo?” nodding at the deep purple bruises marring his throat. 

“I’m fine, he got the jump on me is all,” Fitz said wearily, not taking yes eyes off of Jemma. “Take it this whole thing was a trap?” Gesturing to the manor behind them. 

Mack growled and it was May that answered “Appears so, we were ambushed where we were as far as we could possibly be from the labs. Simmons call for help came seconds after we came under fire. Ward knew what he was doing and was after you.”

Fitz couldn’t argue with that, Ward had grabbed him. Even leaving Jemma behind in his haste to escape. “Luckily, Simmons wasn’t going to let that happen,” Fitz said taking a proper look around them for the first time. Her powers having brought the nearly dead garden back to life. “Regular Flora she is now,” he said with a smile. 

Mack chuckled, “You realize Turbo that makes you Sleeping Beauty here.”

Fitz looked up at him confused, he been referring to the Roman Goddess of Flowers. May cracked a smile as she picked up on his confusion. “You’re not the only ones who watched Disney movies as kids. Remember Flora, Fauna, and Meriwether…the good fairies that protected and helped save Sleeping Beauty from Maleficent. The evil Sorceress that was hell bent on revenge….well in this case the Hydra agent that was hell bent on revenge.” 

“Hell, we even had the briars,” Mack added pointing to the bloody vines laying limp on the ground.

Fitz seemed to think about it for a few moments before laughing himself before he leaned down to kiss Jemma on the forehead again. “I’ll be her Briar Rose any day as long as she’ll have me. Just please, don’t tell Hunter.” 

End-


End file.
